Silent warning: understanding the National Terrorism Advisory System

This research investigated two questions: How effective is the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) when compared to its predecessor, the Homeland Security Advisory System? And, does NTAS provide sufficient decision advantage for the nation it serves? The research methodology/design used a comparative analysis of results observed for each system as it addressed the problem set presented in a case study. The research found that NTAS is effective but continued improvement is needed. These improvements include: the formal establishment of a DHS Office of Counterterrorism Coordination; the renewal of the DHS Counterterrorism Advisory Board Charter or other appropriate governance documents to ensure sustainment of necessary decision making and execution authority for NTAS; refine the NTAS Concept of Operations to better demonstrate the system’s scalable outcomes other than an NTAS-generated alert, such as Joint Intelligence Bulletins, Joint Threat Assessments, etc.; NTAS-related outreach and education efforts with the homeland security enterprise and the public; and the improvement of communication aspects of NTAS integrating with other warning systems, such as the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System. These improvements are critical in sustaining the current effectiveness of the system and ensuring its future success.http://archive.org/details/silentwarningund1094544527National Terrorism Advisory System Coordinator, Department of Homeland SecurityApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

WISP genes are members of the connective tissue growth factor family that are up-regulated in Wnt-1-transformed cells and aberrantly expressed in human colon tumors

Wnt family members are critical to many developmental processes, and components of the Wnt signaling pathway have been linked to tumorigenesis in familial and sporadic colon carcinomas. Here we report the identification of two genes, WISP-1 and WISP-2, that are up-regulated in the mouse mammary epithelial cell line C57MG transformed by Wnt-1, but not by Wnt-4. Together with a third related gene, WISP-3, these proteins define a subfamily of the connective tissue growth factor family. Two distinct systems demonstrated WISP induction to be associated with the expression of Wnt-1. These included (i) C57MG cells infected with a Wnt-1 retroviral vector or expressing Wnt-1 under the control of a tetracyline repressible promoter, and (ii) Wnt-1 transgenic mice. The WISP-1 gene was localized to human chromosome 8q24.1-8q24.3. WISP-1 genomic DNA was amplified in colon cancer cell lines and in human colon tumors and its RNA overexpressed (2- to >30-fold) in 84% of the tumors examined compared with patient-matched normal mucosa. WISP-3 mapped to chromosome 6q22-6q23 and also was overexpressed (4- to >40-fold) in 63% of the colon tumors analyzed. In contrast, WISP-2 mapped to human chromosome 20q12-20q13 and its DNA was amplified, but RNA expression was reduced (2- to >30-fold) in 79% of the tumors. These results suggest that the WISP genes may be downstream of Wnt-1 signaling and that aberrant levels of WISP expression in colon cancer may play a role in colon tumorigenesis

Language ability and entrepreneurship education : Necessary skills for Europe's start-ups?

Language ability and entrepreneurial education are seen as essential resources for start-ups operating in intensified landscapes of internationalisation and globalisation. Deemed as the necessary skills for corporate effectiveness vis-a-vis rivals, this paper responds to calls for increased understandings of cultural components as vital to entrepreneurship and the product of institutional forces. Thus, it explores (a) the impact language ability has on start-up expansion; (b) the perceptions of international relations as based on language ability as a tool for cross-cultural communication; and (c) the role of educational context from the entrepreneurs' perspective. Based on interviews from European online start-ups across three discrete contexts-Finland, Portugal and Sweden-it concludes that contextual trends regarding language and education are founded upon the cultural-cognitive and normative pillars of institutionalisation. Further, by combining actor-context perspectives, it poses that language ability and education are resources borne from the domestic environment which positively moderate the start-up's international success. Nevertheless, the notion of learnt entrepreneurship remains contested. Taken together, this study contributes by offering deeper insight into the role of context on entrepreneurial tendencies by combining resource and institutional perspectives